Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Feb 5;47(3):1222-30. doi: 10.1021/es303345p. Epub 2013 Jan 11.
While water and sanitation are now recognized as a human right by the United Nations, monitoring inequality in safe water access poses challenges. This study uses survey data to calculate household socio-economic-status (SES) indices in seven countries where national drinking-water quality surveys are available. These are used to assess inequalities in access as indicated by type of improved water source, use of safe water, and a combination of these. In Bangladesh, arsenic exposure through drinking-water is not significantly related to SES (p = 0.06) among households using tubewells, whereas in Peru, chlorine residual in piped systems varies significantly with SES (p < 0.0001). In Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Nigeria, many poor households access nonpiped improved sources, which may provide unsafe water, resulting in greater inequality of access to "safe" water compared to "improved" water sources. Concentration indices increased from 0.08 to 0.15, 0.10 to 0.14, and 0.24 to 0.26, respectively, in these countries. There was minimal difference in Jordan and Tajikistan. Although the results are likely to be underestimates as they exclude individual-level inequalities, they show that use of a binary "improved"/"unimproved" categorization masks substantial inequalities. Future international monitoring programmes should take account of inequality in access and safety.
虽然水和环境卫生现在已被联合国确认为一项人权，但监测安全饮用水获取方面的不平等仍存在挑战。本研究使用调查数据来计算七个国家的家庭社会经济地位（SES）指数，这些国家都有全国性饮用水质量调查数据。这些指数被用来评估不同类型的改善水源、安全用水的使用情况以及这两者的组合所反映的获取方面的不平等。在孟加拉国，通过饮用水摄入砷与使用管井的家庭 SES（p = 0.06）并无显著关联，而在秘鲁，管道系统中的余氯与 SES 差异显著（p < 0.0001）。在埃塞俄比亚、尼加拉瓜和尼日利亚，许多贫困家庭使用非管道改善水源，这些水源可能提供不安全的水，导致获得“安全”水的不平等程度高于获得“改善”水源。在这些国家，集中指数分别从 0.08 增加到 0.15、0.10 增加到 0.14 和 0.24 增加到 0.26。在约旦和塔吉克斯坦，差异则微不足道。尽管由于它们排除了个体层面的不平等，结果可能被低估，但这些结果表明，使用“改善”/“未改善”的二元分类方法掩盖了实质性的不平等。未来的国际监测计划应考虑获取和安全方面的不平等。
